The B’nai B’rith went on record here as favoring any honorable approach” that will bring peace to the Middle East “whether through the good offices of the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or joint action by the Western democracies.”
A newly elected B’nai B’rith Board of Governors, meeting here after a five-day triennial session, urged at the same time that “the application of the time-tested policy of balance of power which has served so often to avoid war through history should not be ruled out in the case of the Middle East crisis, where that balance was so upset by the recent sale of vast quantities of arms to the Arab states by the Communist bloc.”
The board hoped that the momentum of present peace efforts would continue “until a Near East peace, just and fair to all parties concerned, is firmly established,” but stressed that there peace efforts would be “accelerated by the simultaneous restoration of the balance of military power among the opposing forces.”
It added: “Whether this need is met through one nation or several is of less consequence than the simple fact that the essential defensive arms for Israel must be supplied with dispatch under terms and conditions within the ability of Israel to receive them.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.